Board of Selectmen Meeting April 6, 2020

Board of Selectmen Meeting April 6, 2020

The Board of Selectmen should reevaluate the budget with a Zero Increase.

It is not time for political favors and increasing the debt.

With the Covid-19 virus upon us and with so many unknowns, it would be prudent to eliminate all non-essential expenditures in the budget.

This is unprecedented times and the budget should not be unresponsive to the taxpayers.

The Town should not have any expenditures in land acquisition since the Meadowood project brings in $200,000 a year in revenue.

As the country is leaning toward a recession, revenues will be scarce, incomes and property values will be greatly reduced.

The schools have established a pay to play policy. Now is the time to require any enhancements on town and education property that directly benefit a group should be paid by the group. The taxpayers can no longer pay for non-essential expenditures.

This is not the time to encumber the taxpayers with increased taxes and debt.

There will be a drastically reduced revenue stream from the State.

This is not the time to “kick the can down the road,” until the next budget cycle.

There are several arbitration hearings continuing with a great cost to the taxpayers.

Both Robin Newton and Sgt. Jason Trombly’s hearings have had costly expenditures for the Labor Attorney with $275/hr in billable expenditures in the thousands and costly transcripts of the hearings that have not been budgeted.

The final outcome of these hearings will give both employees a favorable assessment, charging the Town and the Police Department with Abuse of Power.

The Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities will hold a hearing on the merits of Gertrude Adusei’s compliant against the Library that will be costly to the taxpayers.

I would like to report that I have 9 outstanding Freedom of Information requests that have not been fulfilled. All of these requests were prior to the Covid-19 issue.

The executive session, Attorney client Privileged document not subject to disclosure-Legal Opinion TM/Police Commission Duties is a violation of the Freedom of Information Act.

An opinion on an interpretation of State Statute and the Town Charter is not exempt under Executive Session.

Since the Boards and Police Commission continue to violate the Freedom of

Information Act, it is time to have an informational meeting with the Boards and Commissions on the Freedom of Information Act.

The Town has continued to send emails on social distancing. However, the Simsbury Farms Golf Course appears to disregard the request for 1 person in a cart.

This picture taken during the time of the Corvid-19 virus shows 2 people in the cart.

Why is the Golf Course exempt and tennis and pickleball not exempt?

Chief Boulter, when addressing the Board of Selectmen stated that he and Lt. Sifo were the Duty Officers for the Police Department. Why was Chief Boulter a Duty Officer and not Lt. Sheehan?

Due to the Covid-19 virus the Simsbury Police Officers are given protective masks.

However, many of the Police Officers have beards that do not allow the mask to be secured on their face, giving the officers little protection.

What is the Police Policy on beards?

Now that Mike Wallace, the Golf Superintendent is retiring, it would be a good time to review the need for professional management to reduce costs. Many towns and private clubs have gone with professional management and it has proven to be very desirable.

The Town should be evaluating the need for a professional ambulance service that has a full-time paid staff and does not use volunteers that are not always reliable. Farmington and Avon use AMR and have been satisfied with their responses. AMR ambulance service does not receive any revenue from the towns.

The Board of Selectmen should be presenting a budget that is a reflection of the uncertainty of future revenues and should not be blind sighted in these uncertain times. It is time to bring a ZERO increase in the budget and reduce debt.

All of my comments will be posted on Simsbury Patch, twitter@joancoe and News Feed on facebook.